Archeology work around the early Christian basilica of Santa Cristina d’Aro (Girona) has uncovered the remains of an individual from the Early Middle Ages who exceeded a height of 1.85 meters, a size “absolutely exceptional” for the time. The director of the excavation, the archaeologist Esther Medina, has explained the importance of the discovery because it is from a period in which men barely reached 1.65 meters.
Medina has also highlighted that the discovery is linked to “a very little known erawith few material manifestations of the life of society”, to which is added this exceptional height of one of the deceased and the discovery of an oven from a previous stage under the tombs.
The archaeological site of this space, cataloged as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest (BCIL) and a level of comprehensive protection, dates back to the 60s of the last century with the construction of the Serra-Sol urbanization, in a green area about two hundred meters away. of the current church of Romanesque origin which replaced the old one from the 10th century onwards.
In the excavation work, 37 tombs of diverse typology and conservation have been documented so far, which, in the absence of a definitive study, are located in the period of the Early Middle Ages and Late Antiquity. At the beginning, different construction phases of the temple and thirteen tombs were evident and, following an agreement in 2007 with the University of Girona, twenty-seven were reached.
In the 2021 campaign, twenty-five were consolidated and reintegrated and, this year, the work has focused on archaeological documentation with the aim of museumize the sitewhile a dozen additional unpublished tombs have been detected.
The human remains are found in various states of conservation and in cases where bone remains are preserved, complete individuals are located in anatomical connection. The bodies are preferably arranged with the head located to the west and facing east and there is the presence of other bones attributable to more individuals, which would prove the reuse of graves with a prior arrangement of the funerary container.
Large tomb
The discovery of the remains of a man of exceptional height occurred after finding a large tomb that It reached 2.20 meters. The archaeologists believed that the box had been modified to house several individuals – it could be explained by hypothetical blood relations between them – but They did not appreciate structural reforms.
Once one of the femurs was measured, it was found that the buried person had a height of between 1.80 and 1.85 meters or even slightly more. Finally, experts believe that it was the dimensions of the individual that they conditioned the construction of such a large funerary continent.
“The populations of the Early Middle Ages are little known, but we can affirm that it is an exceptional height, taking into account the nutritional deficiencies and health of that time,” says Esther Medina.
At this site, other remains of people who measured 1.70 meters have been found, which for Medina “opens up a double possibility, it could mean that they were individuals who They fed very wellbecause they had very great tooth wear, or that there were people from outside, but for this DNA would be needed and it is expensive and very complicated to prove.”
In these latest works, which began in December and will end in February, the discovery of remains of an artisanal oven or pre-industrial with ceramic material below two tombs, “which shows that in the 6th and 7th centuries, before being a religious area, there was an occupation here that It had nothing to do with religion.“.
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